What is the use of wasp and what is its role in ensuring the ecological balance of the planet

Good day. Recently, I began to notice more and more wasps near the house and on the entire site.

At first, she did not attach much importance to this. Then I decided to find out the reason for this activity. Found a rather large nest, which continued to increase every day.

I immediately thought about destroying it, but a neighbor advised me not to rush, because wasps can be useful. I decided to make inquiries on this issue. Want to know what isp is good for? Now I have complete information about the life of these insects.

The harm and benefits of wasps and hornets

Wasps are a group of stalked-bellied insects belonging to the order Hymenoptera. In total, about 20 thousand species are known. These species are divided into two groups: single living insects and living in large families.

The body of the wasp is covered with smooth, straight unbranched hairs. A female wasp has a sting, this weapon of attack and defense. Insects build their nests in different places: in burrows, hollows, on tree branches, on various buildings (attics, sometimes balconies, etc.).

Hornets mainly build their nests in the hollows of trees using green bark for this. Wasps build, nests scraping and chewing old wood.

They glue these blanks with their saliva, receiving material for the construction of the nest. Wasps and hornets live in most of Eurasia, North and South America, Russia, Europe and Asian countries.

Breeding wasps

Wasp swarm lives one summer. In the spring, the female builds cells and lays one egg there. Larvae of single wasps develop independently in separate well-sealed chambers. Single wasps live in cottages, can be found in warehouses, households. buildings.

Development cycle: egg - larva - pupa - adult individual lasts about a month. The uterus feeds the larvae at the beginning of development with sugary substances, then chews them with insects, turning them into soft food.

Also, larvae can eat some products used in our kitchen. Under favorable conditions, after a few years, a hornet swarm can number about 1000 individuals.

Harm and Benefit

In nature, wasps and hornets are considered predators. They destroy harmful insects, since they make up their diet at certain points in life, thereby they bring certain benefits, but only until they build their nest in the apiary.

Wasps and hornets are very aggressive; they actively guard their nests and, in case of unwanted intrusion of a person or animal on their territory, can inflict numerous bites in it; therefore, it is important to order a service for the destruction of wasps and hornets from professionals.

The bites of these insects are very painful. If wasps settled next to your house, then no bites can be avoided. It is especially dangerous if you have children living in this place.

A wasp or hornet bite can cause an allergy, and provoke anaphylactic shock, cause serious poisoning of the body. A wasp or hornet bite is very painful and heals for a long time. Wasps and hornets do not cause significant harm to humans, but it is better to avoid this neighborhood.

The harm and benefits of a wasp

The most famous wasp of the temperate climatic zone is the polist (a family of folded-winged public wasps), whose paper nests (photo 1) can often be found under the roofs of houses and garages.

Despite the fear that they induce, when in late autumn they move to winter indoors, they are relatively harmless creatures, rarely stinging if not provoked.

They belong to those few species of wasps whose communities consist of female workers, males, and one or more queens, although the colonies they create are much more primitive than honey bees or ants.

Like honey bees, wasps are quite demanding architects. A paper nest of a polist leaf made of a machet tree chewed into a kind of papier wood seems fragile. In fact, it is durable, and its egg cells are water-repellent, protecting the larvae from rain.

Nests consist of one or more honeycombs, usually located horizontally one above the other. Hexagonal cells are arranged in the cells, facing the hole down. All cells are typically covered by a multilayer paper sheath having an inlet at the bottom or side.

The queen feeds the larvae from the mouth with chewed insects. These larvae turn into working wasps - the nurse of the next generation. Now the queen only deals with the laying of eggs. So gradually the number of working wasps in the nest increases.

In the second half of summer young males and females appear. At the end of summer, they make a mating flight, after which the males die, and the fertilized females arrange for wintering. All workers in the fall also die.

The division of labor in the wasp family between workers is weakly expressed: each wasp performs any work alternately. They always get food alone.

The fact that wasps possess such a formidable weapon is evidenced by their color and behavior. Wasps are always painted brightly, in contrast. They never hide, do not seek to hide, but, on the contrary, are constantly in motion, in plain sight - they have nothing to fear.

Mother hunters

Although most adult wasps eat fruit, nectar and other “sweets”, their larvae need protein for their growth and are usually carnivorous. As a result, many mother wasps became hunters for other insects.

However, they are quite picky, instinctively hunting only one group of insects, for example, cicadas, honey bees or certain caterpillars.

But not all victims of wasps are buried alive with eggs. A grasshopper who fell under the blow of a public wasp (photo 2) will be chewed into a paste and fed to the larvae hatching in open cells.

Scare or destroy?

From all that has been said, it can be concluded that wasps at the same time bring harm and benefit. Adult individuals encroach on our sweet harvest, but at the same time, for larvae they bring caterpillars of leafy moths, moths, fireflies, weevil beetles and other garden pests.

And therefore, the method of combating wasps that we offer you will probably cause you doubts, since it is associated with their destruction.

For plastic bottles, cut the neck and insert the resulting funnel into the bottle with the neck down. Then fill part of the bottles with sweet liquid and hang them throughout the garden. Attracted by the smell of sweet insects penetrate into the tank, but will not be able to get back.

Maybe someone will come up with a more humane way to protect the crop from winged sweets.

Wasp - benefits and harm to humans

Wasps are very common insects that people associate with painful bites. At the same time, these insects may well bring not only harm, but also some benefit to the human home.

The main varieties of wasps:

• single;
• public;

Judging by the name, it is easy to determine that the representatives of the first group prefer to live independently. As for public wasps, they are building nests for a large colony, which at the same time also multiplies quite quickly.

The fact is that wasps actually regard any approach to their nest as an attack, which they immediately respond with their aggressive actions.

Propagation Features

To begin with, it should be understood that the entire swarm of presented insects lives only one season. Next year, a new population is already appearing. Before studying the wasp, the benefits and harms, it is necessary to study the main features of their existence, reproduction and life.

In the spring season, females are engaged in the manufacture of cells in which eggs are subsequently laid.

Public wasps that live in families have their own uterus. It is she who is responsible for the construction of the nest. After barren females are born, they are also included in this process.

The entire period of development from an egg to an adult continues for one month. This information is also interesting, as wasp good and harm, which attracts the attention of average citizens.

At the beginning of the development of the larvae, the uterus feeds them with pre-prepared sugary substances. In the future, the diet of future individuals expands due to the use of insects carefully chewed by females.

This is one of the main dangers of the creatures represented. Under the most suitable conditions for existence, the number of one swarm of the corresponding insects may well reach the mark of 1000 individuals.

Benefit and harm

By their nature, these creatures are predators. That is why they destroy other insects inferior to them in size. They often attack various parasites, which bring significant benefits to people and their homes.

If pests are not managed in a timely manner, then they may well infect people with dangerous infectious diseases, as well as spoil food.

On the other hand, the positive moment described above continues exactly as long as the presented predator does not settle in the apiary in its own nest. Immediately after that, they are automatically re-qualified as pests. The fact is that the main delicacy for them is bees.

Studying the wasp the benefits and harms, you must understand that these creatures in the period of their short existence are still engaged in pollination of various plants. It would seem that this factor is positive. However, the proximity of a wasp with a person all early is undesirable.

Many people who have previously encountered the corresponding problem will confirm this statement. First of all, the danger lies in the fact that the wasps are very aggressive against those people and animals who even involuntarily approach their home.

In this case, it is quite possible to become a victim of numerous bites, which subsequently lead to the development of an allergic reaction and rather serious diseases.

It is better to immediately deal with this housing or seek the help of qualified specialists. This is especially important if small children live in the house.

Due to the not fully developed immune system, they are primarily susceptible to the manifestation of the most serious manifestation of an allergic reaction. Their body may well face full poisoning.

Wasp sting: harm, danger and protection

A wasp sting hurts and can cause severe symptoms. If timely medical attention is not provided, anaphylactic shock or Quincke's edema will occur.

The benefit of wasps is that in the spring season they pollinate flowers of different cultures: they transfer pollen from one plant to another with their paws. Thus, insects can increase the yield of different crops. Wasps also destroy insects that eat plants fruits.

For example, they successfully regale aphids, caterpillars, flies, bugs. During the day, one adult wasp can eat up to 20 - 30 pieces of pests.

Wasp venom consists of the following components:

Each type of wasp has its own individual poison. Hornets (large wasps) secrete poison, consisting of a matoparan with crabrolin. Such polypeptides destroy large human cells and release large amounts of histamine from them.

A small amount of wasp venom increases the pulse, increases the flow of blood to the affected area. If there are too many stings, the skin swells violently, blood accumulates under the skin, pain in the heart, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting.In this case, it is important for the victim to urgently provide medical assistance in order to save his life.

When the question arises, what is the benefit of a wasp sting for a person, it can be said that it is more harmful, as it can cause severe allergies, accompanied by anaphylactic shock and even Quincke's edema.

Unlike wasp venom, bee stings are more beneficial. They improve the functioning of the human nervous system, thin blood clots, act as vasodilating insects, and relieve high blood pressure.

Bee stings, as well as hornets, can provoke the appearance of an allergy, which is dangerous for human health and life.

Does a wasp die after a bite? No, as she can pull out the sting and fly further. Her sting has a smooth surface. Therefore, it freely penetrates the skin, and is also easily removed from it. Bee stings have notches, due to which when they get into the skin of a person, they cannot be removed back.

The bee flies away, but in the bitten place there remains a sting with poison and some part of the insect itself. A wound on the abdomen does not give the bee the opportunity to live, so it dies.

Why are wasp stings dangerous?

The harm from a wasp sting is manifested by the following symptoms:

1. Puffiness and inflammation appear in a bitten place, tissue and vascular walls are destroyed.
2. There are pains that cause severe itching in the affected area.
3. A person suffers from mild malaise and fever.
4. Urticaria and headaches may occur. In severe situations, severe intoxication occurs, Quincke's edema. With a severe allergy to a hornet’s bite, it is important to urgently show the affected person to the doctor in order to help him in time and even save him from a fatal outcome.

An insect bite is also dangerous because it causes sensitization.

At the first bite, there can be no reaction, and subsequent attacks by wasps can cause unpleasant and even life-threatening symptoms.

How to protect yourself from poison

Since hornet attacks are dangerous for humans, medicine suggests a preventive vaccination. Toxins and histamine are introduced into the body in small doses. Vaccination is carried out in the first half of summer in order to have time to protect yourself before insect activity begins.

To protect yourself from the attack of a wasp, it is important that you do not wave your arms with its presence, use special protective equipment or electronic devices.

Wasp stings are dangerous for humans, as they cause severe allergies and other symptoms. Is a wasp bite useful? They are of little use. The insect does not die after stinging, since it does not leave its sting in the skin. But, in the place of the bite remains poison, which poses a threat to human health and life.

Wasp poison - composition, benefits and harm to humans

Unlike honey bees, a wasp stings its prey several times. Wasp venom causes intense pain, it is so strong that it seems the body has suffered much more than it looks after examination.

The injected substance contains much more ingredients than is necessary in order to scare away your victim. When bitten by a wasp, it pursues certain goals:

1. Paralyze the insect so that it can be easily transported to the nest and feed its offspring.
2. Scare a large animal or person. The poison provides enough pain to convince the stranger to leave the territory that the wasp protects.

Pain from wasp venom occurs due to exposure to nerve endings. It causes severe physical suffering, comparable in intensity of sensations to a wound or injury.

If you want to minimize your chances of meeting with wasps and hornets, think about protective measures in advance - check out the rating of the best tools for fighting wasps and their nests and an overview of the best traps for wasps and hornets.

Composition of wasp venom

The composition of wasp venom provides a quick effect, it is a multi-stage attack against the nervous system, which acts at the cellular level.

Peptides and enzymes in the poison destroy cell membranes at the site of the bite, spilling their contents into the bloodstream. Neurons send a signal to the brain, so a person perceives pain

Hyaluronidase and phospholipase destroys mast cell membranes. The tissue at the site of the bite swells due to the release of histamine. The skin area turns red, becomes dense.

Wasp venom is dangerous for its allergic manifestation. Some people experience a strong reaction to substances in the toxin, can be severely affected by the cardiovascular system and depression of the respiratory center.

The difficulty is that a person cannot know in advance how his body will react to a wasp sting.

What is the use of wasp venom?

The exact composition of wasp venom is not as well known as that of bees. Of course, the main components are carefully studied, but because of the content of highly allergenic components, it is not used for medicinal purposes.

Aspen poison contains tonic and exciting components, some have a stimulating effect on the metabolism in the body.

Unlike bees that can be bred on farms, it is generally accepted that it was not advisable to keep wasps for these needs. It is easier to turn to synthetic analogues of the poison, the effect of which is safe and predictable.

It is difficult to say whether wasp venom is useful, because of its highly allergenic protein content, its use for health purposes is difficult.

For allergy sufferers, wasp venom is a vaccine. With its help, it is possible to reduce the risk of serious consequences after a repeated bite. After processing the starting material under laboratory conditions, histamine and toxin concentration are reduced, but specific components are preserved.

As a prophylaxis, the vaccine is given before the start of the sting insect season. After a short period of time, an immune response is generated to the possible receipt of wasp venom.

If a human attack by a stinging insect occurs again, the reaction of the body will be less pronounced and the risk of anaphylactic shock will be significantly reduced.

Aspen poison is used in the world. They continue to study it in detail and examine its effect. In Spain, several experiments were carried out to destroy a cancerous tumor with the components of a poison.

The effects of wasp venom on the body

If you do not provide assistance to the victim and do not treat the bite site on time. it is clearly visible how wasp venom acts. First, a white tubercle appears on the skin with a distinct red dot at the puncture site of the sting. Severe burning pain lasts for several minutes, while the effect of norepinephrine persists.

First aid is rinsing with cold water the bite and applying a cold compress. Antihistamines help to cope with the manifestations of allergies and accelerate the normalization of the condition of the victim. The risk that a person in the future may experience a strong allergic reaction to wasp venom depends on his immunological status.

In any case, it is recommended to avoid encounters with wasps.The consequences of exposure to the poison are difficult to predict, the bites themselves are painful and give the victim many reasons for concern.

What are the wasps in the summer cottage

"The larvae of the May beetle eat everything on their way!" - this is the groan of a tormented summer resident! How much work has been done, how much effort has been invested in garden beds and flower beds, and they spoil everything!

Hands actually drop ... And there is no way to quickly and simply destroy pests.

With a gun on a bee wolf

They used to go to a terrible beast with a horn, now only hunters occasionally meet with wolves and bears, and wasps were considered to be animals, they are called bee wolves. Many methods have been devised to eradicate these insects.

And behind all the horror stories, they somehow forgot that wasps are useful insects.

What is the benefit of wasps

First, let's look at them. Wasps are very beautiful and graceful creatures: they have a thin waist, they are wonderful gymnasts. All the parameters of the Barbie doll are given to them for a reason. To catch insects, you need to have speed, speed, strength, and stability. Nature supplied all these wasps immensely.

Who will help to cope with the larvae of the beetle and rhino beetle? Wasps of scoliosis and typhus will help. They are not the closest relatives, but the eating habits of their children are the same. Tuberous wasps feed their larvae with paralyzed goldfish, leaf beetles, and weevils. The spylomene wasp is so small that it makes its nests in a straw, and feeds the children with thrips.

Typhus wasps. In Russia, typhoid thick-footed is more common than other typhi. The female finds the larva in the soil or substrate where she lives. Having found - stings, the poison paralyzes the larva.

And typhus lays an egg on this larva, and so that it does not fall off, the female glues it, choosing the right place, special for each type of bug. Here is such a survival technology. The hatching wasp larva feeds on the body of the larval beetle larva.

That is, those very thick white worms that fall into the soil of our beds along with humus and manure. So it helps to get rid of June jelly beans, rhinoceros beetles and bronzes.

Chapels - large wasps; another giant scoliot grows up to six centimeters. A sort of helicopter flies and frightens its appearance. Involuntarily, he thinks that if he decides to have lunch or to defend himself, he will immediately bite off his hand entirely. However, this wasp is very peaceful.

The sting is used only for its natural purpose - for the preparation of feed. A person can pick up a wasp - it will not sting, apparently, she does not need such a huge larva. It is worth taking care with paper wasps - these sting if they do not like something.

Skolii feed their babies with larvae of bronzes, tinctures, rhinoceros beetles. Do it very high quality. On the island of Mauritius, the chickens imported from Madagascar fought with a rhinoceros beetle, and the chines from the Philippines fought against hawk in Hawaii.

Scoliosis is more common in Russia; it selects larvae of golden and copper bronzes as food for posterity.

Paper wasps. It is they who fly into the kitchen and climb into sockets with jam. Paper wasps live in families, building houses from chewed rotting wood. For larvae they catch any insects - flying or crawling. The main selection criterion - the wasp should have the strength to overcome the future food in the fight.

Wasp Wall. Wall wasps are relatives of paper ones, they feed their baby with paralyzed larvae of elephant beetles, leaf beetles and grinders, caterpillars of moths and leaflets. A tenon-footed wall wasp specializes in the larvae of Phytonomus weevils.

German wasps. German wasp prepares minced meat for its larvae from butterfly caterpillars, sawfly larvae and flies.

Digging wasps. Who can deal with a bear? Burrowing wasp Larre. She finds a bear in the ground, drives it to the surface, stings it in three thoracic segments and, while the bear is in a stupor, lays an egg under the base of the front leg (it sounds somehow too scientifically, to put it more simply, an armpit).

Then the bear comes back to life and again crawls under the ground, laying an egg in a secluded place. Wasp larva will feed on a bear.

Having pushed into a mink, lays an egg on "canned food". Sometimes it will bring two caterpillars.

Bembix Nosy. Nose bambix catches flies and horseflies, when they sit on flowers, and also catches on the fly. Horsefly cleverly removes directly from the skin of cattle.

Bembix is ​​a very caring parent, he brings food to his offspring every day. Each larva needs about 60 flies to grow, and horseflies are larger — about 24 are enough.

Ammophila Wasp. Ammophiles feed their larvae with a scoop caterpillar. They smell caterpillars in the ground, because they do not hide deeply during growth. Sandy ammophiles dig up caterpillars and sting. Fluffy ammophiles bring each of their baby a dozen caterpillars of moths.

Os must be protected

Well, the wasp flew into the room ... Cover it with a glass jar, cover the neck with a sheet of paper, take it outside, let the wasp free. Did you see the minks?

Fence the place with pots with petunias - let the wasps work: they fly to live where there is food for the larvae, where you can grow offspring.

Let them live on the plots. Then there will be less wormy apples and plums, and without any processing. And you will not have to soak raspberries in salted water - there will be no small worms. Summer residents will help wasps - wasps will help summer residents.

The role of insects in ecological balance

Due to the fact that insects grow very quickly and are incredibly prolific, it is difficult to exaggerate their environmental impact. They have the most life forms that are involved in the cycle of substances in nature.

The importance of insects for maintaining ecological balance on Earth is discussed in sufficient detail in various textbooks, teaching aids, and popular science literature. We will consider only some of its aspects here.

On the relativity of the concepts of "benefit" and "harm"

The concept of utility is less and less used to assess the role in nature of various types of living things. In the interconnected living world there are neither “useful” nor “harmful” animal species, and therefore insects.

For example, it would seem what benefit can be from the vulture - mosquitoes, midges and other similar insects. However, everything is provided for in nature. These dipteran insects are extremely prolific and breed in puddles, swamps, in flood meadows. More than 20 thousand of their larvae can fall on 1 m2 of water flooded area.

These larvae serve as food for fish, in addition to the fact that they are able to accumulate in the body a lot of valuable trace elements that, with water runoff, enter the aquatic environment from the soil. This is cobalt, manganese, iodine, iron and even gold.

The imago larvae that emerge from the larvae scatter and spread the accumulated microelements everywhere, fertilizing the dry land. And thus the annoying sinus contributes to the cycle of many trace elements, so necessary for soil formation and all living things.

And since the total biomass of such diptera insects living on Earth is huge, this is a very important environmental factor.

What is the role of phytophages?

The ecological system is an interconnected whole, and insects play an important role in it. They are undoubtedly endowed with their own usefulness for a biocenosis, perhaps not always understood by us.

For example, it is widely believed that insects that damage trees in a forest or cultivated plants harm them. But one of the destinations of plants is their consumption in food, that is, participation in the food chain. Therefore, trees form more leaves than necessary.

Therefore, phytophages are able to increase yield, naturally, with their optimal number. This suggests that the hereditary program of plant development includes the loss of some part of it.

A genetic program of phytophages provides them with such an organism and behavior that allows them to eat plants. Everything is provided and appropriate.

Each hectare of deciduous forest is usually inhabited by caterpillars, the mass of which is 200 - 300 kg. In those forests where the caterpillars were considered to be pests and were completely destroyed by pesticides, the foliage remained unharmed.

But in the autumn, the soil layer covered by it was so thick that neither earthworms nor other soil organisms had time to process it. This forest litter has become more and more powerful year after year, as a result of which there has been a change in gas and water exchange between soil and air.

The roots began to die off a little, and the trees appeared dry peaks. Fallen seeds did not reach the ground in order to germinate, therefore, the renewal of the forest stopped - he "died standing." In those forests where the caterpillars were not touched, by the beginning of summer they ate part of the foliage.

The not very dense foliage that appeared by the middle of summer in the autumn gave a moderate mass of litter. By spring, he had time to overtake well, increasing the amount of organic matter in the soil under the trees.

To this was added a solid portion of fertilizers from the life of the caterpillars - more than 200 kg of their excrement per hectare of forest! And this is not a paradox of nature, but the “wisdom” of the mechanism of ecological balance.

How dangerous is the mass reproduction of insects?

With the "explosive" reproduction of insects, a disturbance in the ecological balance can occur. For example, the amount of food consumed per day by a locust weighing 2 g is equal to its weight.

The density of hordes can reach from 40 to 80 million insects per 1 km2. Such a multi-million swarm is able to eat up to 80 thousand tons of food per day. It would be enough to feed 40 thousand people for a whole year.

And yet, even with the mass reproduction of plant “pests”, the result is not always negative.So, in the period of the simultaneous appearance of a huge number of caterpillars of the oak leaflet, by the end of May, oaks can be practically without leaves. But these trees do not die and after a while give new foliage.

Only annual wood growth is reduced. But the growth, languishing in the shade of powerful trees, when exposed, receives much more light by the beginning of summer and begins to actively develop. Indeed, young oak grow in the shade of large oak forests is almost impossible.

One hectare of forest during mass reproduction of caterpillars receives up to 400 kg of such uniformly dispersed fertilizers.

Ecological chain of insects and plants

The better we learn about natural processes, the more we make amazing discoveries for ourselves. They persistently convince that in the living world there are unified control systems and mechanisms for the conservation of all its species on Earth and for ensuring general ecological balance.

In order to realize the targeted impact of these systems, all representatives of the living world are provided with amazing opportunities. An example is the ability of completely seemingly defenseless plants to prevent excessive losses from insects.

But gradually startling facts began to open up. It turns out that the plants were given the ability to defend themselves, “warn neighbors” about the attack of enemies, and even “call friends for help”.

For this purpose, special chemicals are synthesized - pheromones and poisons. The former are a means of "chemical communication", and the latter either cause digestion in the enemies of plants, or kill them.

It is thanks to the wise genetic program embedded in the plant organism that both their purposeful protection from extermination and the preservation of the ecological balance in nature are carried out. Let's consider these properties on examples.

Trees exchange information

With a massive invasion of caterpillars on the grove, it would seem that there is almost no chance for trees to maintain foliage. However, in many cases, trees are given the opportunity to successfully defend themselves.

So, with the active reproduction of a silkworm in a grove affected by caterpillars, only some trees suffer greatly. The rest remain unharmed. It turns out that trees exchange information, releasing pheromones of a special chemical composition into the air.

They help to communicate with each other not only to trees of one species, but also to different species - poplar, maple, oak, beech. Trees at risk send alarm messages to their brethren.

When insects attack in the body of the first trees in their path, a danger signal is automatically turned on. Under the guidance of the genetic program, damaged leaves begin to synthesize and actively release anxiety substances into the air.

It was established that before insects manage to move from the affected trees to neighboring ones, they are already ready for defense. Most trees begin to actively produce a series of poisons, some of which provide inedibility to leaves, while others kill insects.

This means that the unique innate plant protection program takes into account the expedient feature of insects getting used to poisons.

"Chemical anxiety" in plants

Other types of plants, such as tomatoes and cotton, are endowed with an equally amazing program of their own protection and assistance to relatives.Firstly, when insects attack them, the leaves begin to actively produce a mixture of toxic chemicals. Beetles get poisoned by the digestive system and often die.

Secondly, the organism of attacked plants, like trees, emits special compounds - pheromones, with the help of which "chemical anxiety" and the transmission of a danger message to other plants are carried out.

Some plants, when attacked by caterpillars, secrete the so-called "aromas of green leaves." These substances are attracted to females of some species of solitary wasps, which are specially equipped next to "their" plants.

Having received a chemical signal, the wasps fly in and sting the caterpillars. Having paralyzed, the females carry them to their minks, where they lay their testicles. This is a great help to plants.

In the future, as hatched larvae eat “canned food”, wasps rush to replenish the mink with new portions of caterpillars. This is an example of the amazing interconnectedness of the interests of various representatives of the living world.

And the wasp program provides “knowledge” of the smell of these substances, which tell the wasps that in the place of occurrence of the “aroma of green leaves” you need to look for caterpillars. Indeed, without this prey, the wasps would not have posterity.

Thus, these trees are protected by "friends", and the caterpillars did not breed in catastrophic quantities, and the wasps fed their offspring. Life continues thanks to the wisdom of the hereditary program and the clearly controlled actions of each of the participants in the ecological chain.

Change in ecological balance

Sometimes, under natural conditions, the balance between insects and plants can temporarily shift in one direction or another.

For example, if plants of a certain species appear a week earlier or later than usual due to weather or other environmental factors, this can dramatically limit the development of those insects that depend on this plant.

Often, such a balance can be affected by human activities. Actively growing certain crops, he unhappily increases the number of their insect consumers.

Thus, the constant artificial maintenance of the concentration of crops of potatoes and other nightshade causes the excessive distribution of the Colorado potato beetle. Under natural conditions, in the absence of humans, the concentration of plants is less, and the ecological balance is not disturbed.

Tireless Soil Formers

A huge variety of insects is determined by the special functions of each species that it performs to maintain the natural ecological balance. For this we need pollinating insects, soil-forming agents, orderlies, and representatives of other “professions” performing important chores on Earth.

But as soon as the mushroom mosquito laid their eggs on them, the leaves turned into humus in three days. And where there are no destroyers of litter, as, for example, in the coniferous forest zone, fibrous peat-like infertile layers accumulate.

Some groups of insects quickly destroy dead tree trunks, supporting the circulation of substances in nature.In the tropics, the only soil-forming insects are moisture-loving termites that process all dying wood and plant debris in forests.

In addition, termites downgrade the soil with their numerous strokes and move it in different directions, mixing the layers. By passing plant food and soil through the intestines, they actively influence the processes occurring in the soil.

Despite the fact that termites are confronted with the interests of man (insects destroy the wooden structures of people), the role of termites in the life of tropical nature is undoubtedly huge.

Hardworking orderlies

Larvae of flies and many beetles feed on manure. So, dung beetles quickly destroy cattle droppings, due to which they are able to completely clear a heavily polluted rural corral in a month. In this case, one "cake" may account for up to 800 individuals.

With the help of dung beetles, the pasture is also quickly cleared, which creates the conditions for the normal development of plants. The processed manure also serves as an excellent fertilizer. Dung beetles on each hectare of pasture process up to 200 kg of manure.

In addition, beetles of various species are given excellent hereditary manure processing technologies. Some beetles under his heaps dig burrows 30–50 cm deep, make cells there and ram them densely with manure, where the females lay their eggs, the hatching larvae live and eat.

Insects are also intended for the quick destruction of animal corpses. It is difficult to overestimate the huge work on cleaning the soil from accumulations of the remains of organisms, which is performed, for example, by grave-beetles. The hereditary program provides them with a series of targeted actions.

Beetles in a certain way undermine the soil under the carrion, betraying the bodies of dead animals to the ground, and lay eggs nearby in the soil. The result is a double effect: the larvae emerging from the eggs get the food they need, and the Earth is constantly cleansed of the corpses of animals.

An equally important ecological role belongs to the larvae of flies. They, too, must perform special sanitary functions on Earth, causing accelerated decay of animal remains. Karl Linney estimated that in the tropics, the offspring of only three flies can destroy a horse’s corpse faster than a lion does.

In addition, the larvae of flies have a sanitary service for the destruction of various sewage. Without their useful work, organic residues would poison the air for a long time and serve as a source of dangerous infectious diseases.

The great role of pollinating insects

A huge number of bestial plants (pollinated by animals) cannot be fertilized without their help. About 80% of wild and cultivated plants need pollinating insects - butterflies, bees, bumblebees, bugs, flies, mosquitoes.

Therefore, plant flowers have a number of ways to attract pollinators and special devices for automatically capturing pollen by insects.

This helps pollen stay on the animal’s body. And insects, in turn, need nectar and pollen. When flying from flower to flower, they cross-pollinate plants.

For this, insects are provided not only with a specific body structure, interconnected with pollination processes, but also with appropriate food, reproductive and other types of behavior.And all this exists with the goal of creating just the most unique community of pollinating insects and plants.

Usually, insects for the sake of nectar and pollen visit many different plants. But representatives of certain types of insects pollinate according to their innate program only plants of certain species.

At the same time, the periods of development of this tiny wasp are ideally calculated and coincide with the flowering and fruiting of figs. In addition, the wasp body specifically creates a number of devices for collecting pollen - various pockets, baskets, brushes.

This community is so strong that the fig plant cannot complete its life cycle without a wasp, and the life of the wasp is completely dependent on the fig. The death of a plant inevitably entails the death of an insect, and vice versa.

No less striking relationships are shown by the moth of the holly and the wild plant of Mexico and South America of the lily family. Yucca flower is designed in such a way that only this type of moths can pollinate it.

With their help, moth sculpts a hard and heavy lump from pollen. Then she carefully transfers this ball to the stigma of a flower of the same kind. After this, the moth pierces a hole in the seed box and lays two or three testicles between the immature seeds.

In such an amazing way, she pollinates Yucca flowers and provides her future offspring with food. And since the larvae eat very few seeds, both sides win.

Thanks to such cooperation, both the plant and the moth will live side by side and successfully breed. The relationship between them is so close that in Europe, where there are no moons, yucca is not able to bear fruit.

Mimicry is an amazing effect of the imitative similarity of representatives of the animal and plant world or their organs in shape and color of the body, specific odors, etc.

Some plants have an external resemblance to other plants that are more beneficial for insects. For example, by “deception” prepared by the body’s genetic program, the Belozor plant is able to attract the necessary pollinators.

Its nectar-free flowers look like honey plants. Therefore, visually oriented insects flock to them. Pollination prepared in such an expedient way gives life to the offspring of Belozor.

The mimicry mechanism is endowed with many types of orchids that do not secrete nectar and excess pollen. To attract pollinators, they are provided with devices unique in their essence. Petals of orchid flowers are similar in shape, color and pattern to females of some species of hymenoptera, such as long-horned bees.

How, inexplicably, does the genetic program of plants take into account and purposefully control the most complex processes of reproducing the image of a female future pollinator in a flower? Here, every detail has been taken into account: the expansion of the lower petals, which is characteristic of the body of a bee of this species, and even the presence of "antennae" and "eyes" on the imitation of its head!

And this is just one of many cases of preparedness of the most unthinkable cooperation between different representatives of the animal and plant kingdoms.